Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

BIRTHING TIME

THE CLOCK HAS STARTED
     A couple of young elephant seal pups nurse in the afternoon sun on the beach near Piedras Blancas.  The colony is in the midst of birthing season.
     The wrinkled little black pups have about 6 weeks to feed when mom cuts them off as she becomes fertile and ready for mating.  
     Nearby adult males have begun to size up their harem and their corner of the beach.  They know instinctively when a female reaches a six week post birth state of readiness.  The scene then becomes one of harems.
     A bull is surrounded by a ring of females.  He will stir periodically to mate, then drop back into a pose such as this.  If another male attempts to enter his circle, a battle ensues.  In the meantime it is nap time.  
     After six weeks the pups are called Weaners and they begin to cluster together.  Eventually they need to learn to swim, but do so on their own.  Mom is long gone. And if it goes well for them they'll know when it is time to go into the sea for a hunting/feeding migration. Elephant seals travel alone as males head to waters off Alaska and females track toward Canada.  
     Poetically, mating season in this colony reaches it's peak around Valentines day.

    Down the beach, another couple has already begun their courting.
    See you down the trail.

Monday, January 14, 2013

POSITIVITY

IN THE PINK
     The idea of relative values has been running in the back of my mind, making me smile.  Californians have been shivering and complaining about the cold snap we are enduring.  To be honest, it has been chilly, but....
      Temperatures here are approaching record overnight lows , low 30's and upper 20's.  Yes, cooler than normal, but compared to what most of the nation endures and what we experienced for all those decades in Indiana, well, you get the drift.  On one of our "cold" nights, I took something out to the trash, wearing a T-shirt.  I would not want to have stayed out long, but there were winter storm nights in the mid-west such an act could have been near lethal.  Relative values.
   This is Toccata, the signature piece in Lana's new exhibition at the Windward Vineyard Gallery.  It is a departure, or a return to her roots, after 6 years of doing
Plein Air work.  You can see more of the work by linking here.
    My sincere thanks to those of you who have written, asking about why the break in the blog posting.  I missed filing the Weekender, due in part to the two gents in the foreground.
   Mike Griffin, on the left, who I mentioned recently and Bruce Taylor, AKA Catalyst, who's own blog, Oddball Observations, is linked in the column to the right, are central to my excuse.  The 3 of us worked together back in 1969 and have remained fast friends since.  As you may recall, Bruce and his lovely Judy, have been inspirations in our life.  They are here, visiting and frankly we've been having too much fun to break away long enough to post.  I'm sneaking this one in quickly, awaiting Bruce and Judy's arrival for an afternoon and evening of more.
   See you down the trail. 

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

HOW DO YOU WANT TO LIVE & IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?

EARTH NEWS
     A service of this blog is the link, just to the right, to the Scientific American blog, an incredible source of real news and valued information.  Mainstream and social media are buzzing today with "news" that last year was the hottest on record.  Scientific American has been on, into and all over the facts for several months.  They posted earlier.  Do yourself a favor and keep an eye on their site.
       Now what are we going to do about the climate and the implications of continued change?
WHAT DO YOU THINK? 
      Have you followed the proposed changes at one of this planet's treasures, Yosemite National Park? 
      To help protect the wild nature of the Merced River and environs, the park plans to eliminate a 1920's skating rink, bike and river raft rental, while rerouting some roads, using more shuttle buses and constructing a pedestrian underpass to connect the lodge with the falls.  
      The plan has been years in developing.  Public comment is accepted until mid April.
     Visiting Yosemite, and nearby Sequoia National Park is a profound experience.
HEARST GRAZING
      A drive on the scenic Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1)
is even more amusing when the Hearst zebra are grazing.
     Spotting zebra in a heard of cattle prompts tourists to brake suddenly.  Did I really see that?  Is that what I think it is?
     The Hearst Castle, built by Julia Morgan for William Randolph Hearst sits atop a mountain on the 80 thousand acre San Simeon-Piedras Blancas ranch.  It's an impressive stretch of California central coast.
Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons
    The zebra are a vestige of the old man's penchant for wild animals.  Thru the years, the heard has grown and often grazes along side the Hearst grass fed beef.
  Hearst zebras were the center of a shooting incident almost two years.

    A commercial talks about California cows being contented.  Must be true for California zebras too, don't you think?  Fewer predators than Africa and a great ocean view.
    See you down the trail.     

Monday, January 7, 2013

BOLD MOVES

SIX YEARS ON
    A rest stop outside Bakersfield six years ago yesterday was the setting for our first sunset as transplants in transit. 
    Friends and associates were incredulous when a couple of boomers, rounding 60, pulled up roots and stakes and rode into the sunset, headed west where we knew no one.  Things like doctors, dentists, new driver licenses, where to shop, how to get there, finding friends, new climate and all the details of life were riddles.  It seemed natural to us, not as big a deal as seemingly everyone else wanted to make it. After all when we married we left for a spring and summer to explore Europe-two green kids on a mission of discovery. Later we built a cabin home deep in a rural woods despite my boss's warning  "every day can't be a picnic." Six years ago settling in California read well on our gyroscope.
     Six years ago today, when this frame was snapped, she was ready to begin what has been a creative renaissance. I have watched with pride. Art shows, awards, collectors and buyers, productivity and an artist's emphatic embrace of life.  Mine has been so much richer because of Lana and our exploration of the last six years. She has grown more confident and more beautiful.
     I suspect most of us are inclined toward habit and routine, following the path that is known and comfortable, allowing few, if any, surprises.  Settling in a new home in a village on the California central coast half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles is a guarantee against the routine of the previous life. 
     Please excuse the obvious self absorption of this post but we celebrate our "bold move," convinced it has provided renewal. The other night as I soaked in our spa, watching a meteor shower, hearing the buzz and zip of the cosmic sky show, overwhelmed again by thousands of light pricks in  the velvet depth of space, I thought of myself as a "Californian." I have become what my father did as a young lad, only to leave it to return to Indiana as his father began an ailing journey to death.  Dad always held to that piece of California in his youth, longing for the time when he could return.  That was to be the work of my generation.
      What sweetens this "celebration" are other people.
Notably, a couple of mentors who are coming for a visit this week.
    Bruce and Judy.  He was the experienced broadcast journalist who broke me in when I joined a metro news team.  She was to become his gracious wife who opened a world of sophistication, literature and kitchen magic to us.
    Free spirits, travelers who have taken life on their terms, they were "encouragers", "inspirations," certainly by example.
    And we note those we celebrate with-- frequently-
   Griff and Jacque.  They came for a visit in 2007.  They came back. And they came back.
    And now they live but six minutes away, just through the shire and a mere 100 steps from the Pacific.  They too, packed it up, abandoned mid western winter and what they knew. As Griff says frequently, "I get it!"
    None of us are kids.  We've reached a time when many seek the shelter of certainty, knowing pretty much "all there is to know," being confident "that is just the way it is, and so there."  But something in the transformation of the last six years has kept the dials moving, the channels open, the exploration underway, the learning as daily as breathing.  
    Attitude, lifestyle, examples, and much more conspire to make this bold move a good thing for us. I think a lot of it has to do with the fresh air and light.  I asked an artist/ neuroscientist if he thought the renaissance could have begun anywhere else but in the light of the Mediterranean south, which is the same as the light of California.  After much rumination he offered that "light works on the brain in wondrous ways, unlocking, perhaps, forces that impel or even compel creativity."
    A case in point is perhaps the ringleader.
    Doesn't this look like a pied piper capable of luring aging mid western boomers to the land of the Beach Boys, Eagles, Grateful Dead and Manhattan Beach Blue Grass, even if a few years on?  He did start early.
    High school friend and Ball State fraternity brother Jim began longing for California in 1968.  He made the bold move when we were still kids and quickly became a magnet that drew us for repeated visits, holidays, vacations and the birth of our own longing.
     On one of those early visits he drove us up the coast to Big Sur and the rest is, as they say, history-removed of course by rearing two daughters, careers, aging, and rounding 60! But he finally landed a couple more. And there is no way to say thank you, emphatically enough.
     Bold moves.  It just takes some of us a little longer to get there. But what a great place to be.  
     See you down the trail.
    
      

Friday, January 4, 2013

THE WEEKENDER-YOUR TRAFFIC GUIDE?

THE END OF THE NIGHT WATCH
     People who write and produce morning news programs start their "day" around 11:30 PM, just as the evening crews finish. They are truly the Night Watch of modern civilization.
      Broadcasts are always looking for something to give the program an advantage, a reason to watch and to build loyalty. A hybrid commodity in that mix is the traffic report-personality with helpful information for morning rush hour drivers.  
       As a News Director I made sure our helicopter was up, that traffic cam's were feeding good images, I hired a popular radio personality who sparkled on television, and invested heavily in interactive screens and software that gave Julie a stunning visual display of traffic, maps and the ability to zoom in and out of specific locales and etc. And then you add that to the mix of news, weather, features and other personalities.  
       Well, out of this world comes the lad we offer as our Weekender Video entertainment. I sent this video off to former colleagues and other news executives. Responses were wide ranging and funny.  What do you think?  Would you like this to be part of your Friday morning traffic report?
Enjoy.
       What would Walter Cronkite, or David Brinkley say?
       Have a great first weekend of the new year. 
       See you down the trail.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

HANNAH'S COURAGE, A BAD CAT & FRESH

FRESH AIR
     A brisk pace in the fresh air and light on the bluff was a good way to start 
the year and think about the recently published study that finds working out and exercise enables the brain to grow. Good news for generations of boomers.

A FRESH START?
     Wouldn't it be great to think the somewhat bi-partisan work in avoiding the self inflicted flagellation called the fiscal cliff could be the beginning? The beginning to a sense of "governance" and the putting of politics into the basement? By, for and of the people.

A STALKER ON THE GRAZING SLOPES
Photo courtesy of countyofsb.org
    A rancher friend told me he has lost four calves in the last several days to a California Mountain Lion.  He says tracks and the condition of the remains lead him to think it is a mother with two cubs.
Photo courtesy of cal poly.edu
       The big cats are pretty much the top of the food chain in the mountains. The bears in this area are sparse and generally non threatening.  That's not the case with cougars which have been spotted in populated areas too.
    My friend is checking with other ranchers to see how widely traveled the predator family may be. We've seen a few bobcats out here. I'd be content to not see a cougar, unless from a good distance.


HANNAH'S WARNING
     Back in the 60's,Hannah Storm, then Hannah Storen, was a cute little gal, the daughter of Mike Storen Coach and GM of the Indiana Pacers and Commissioner of the old American Basketball Association. The Storens were popular with Pacer fans and the media.
     I've followed her career since she graduated Notre Dame and started her media ascendancy.  She is a genuine communicator and a first class broadcaster.  Over the New Years weekend, she told of an event that could have killed her. Her public explanation displays a dignity, confidence and courage. Some in her business would have been less public.  She offers this as true public service.  
      Heal and continue to thrive Ms. Storm.  You are the real deal.

    See you down the trail.

Monday, December 31, 2012

NEW YEAR

A GLIMMER
       This is the second cup of adrenaline laced hope in this great season.  A week after Christmas and the season of joy comes the New Year, the makeover of all makeovers, when all that is hoped for is possible, at least for this season and sometimes that is good enough to create momentum.
       Dream it now, and in the winter to come, do it.

FOR OLD TIMES
       Excuse me as my Scots blood turns me to sentimental recall of Robert Burns anthem
       "...and there's a trusty hand my friend 
       and give us a hand of thine!
       and we'll take a right good will draught,
       for auld lang syne."
       Take your choice of style, just have a happy ending and joyous beginning.

       Thank you for your readership this year.
       Be safe and be well.
       See you down the trail.